impoverish
/ɪmˈpɒv(ə)ɹɪʃ/
"impoverish" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“impoverish” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To make poor.
Corpus desk
Index EN-impoverish · impoverish · English
impoverish · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | impoverish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɪmˈpɒv(ə)ɹɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “impoverish” in English
Rare enough to double-check
impoverish is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /ɪmˈpɒv(ə)ɹɪʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for impoverish, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English empoverishen, impoverishen, empoverischen, enpoverisshen, Anglo-Norman empoveriss-, from Old French empoverir, from em- + povre, from Latin pauper (“poor”) (English poor). The correct English form is impoverish, spelled I-M-P-O-V-E-R-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1To make poor.
- 2To weaken in quality; to deprive of some strength or richness.
- 3To become poor.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how impoverish appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
That exuberant crop quickly impoverishes any fertile soil.
To many of us, organized religion is obnoxious. Yet if we throw out the sense of peace, order and joy that flows from religious ritual, we impoverish ourselves.
Etymology
From Middle English empoverishen, impoverishen, empoverischen, enpoverisshen, Anglo-Norman empoveriss-, from Old French empoverir, from em- + povre, from Latin pauper (“poor”) (English poor).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.